HighSchool
by givemeyourpoison
Summary: Set in high school. Dealing with the excitement of your first real relationship and the drama's of a typical high school. CloudxZack and PromptoxNoctis are the two main pairings, plus mild mentions of others. Rated for later content :)
1. Chapter 1

_Beep beep beep _

Cloud Strife raised his arm and roughly pushed the alarm clock off his bedside table, causing it to skid across the floor and hit the wall; the beeping cutting off as it did. Groaning, he rolled over in bed and yanked the covers up over his head. No, he's not getting up. You can't make him. Closing his eyes he settled back under the covers and started to drift off back to sleep. Moments later his door was flung open and a red cannonball charged into the room and onto his bed screaming as it did. Cloud cried out and started throwing his arms around in shock. The cannonball, in this case being Cloud's best friend Reno, started laughing as he pulled the covers back off Cloud;

"Well, thank god you don't sleep naked Cloudy. Now get up, your Mum's making pancakes and she's given me permission to throw cold water on you if you're not downstairs soon."

Sitting up, Cloud narrowed his eyes and looked up at Reno starting to rub his eyes he mumbled,

"If there ever comes a morning where you wake up and think that you shouldn't come over to mine before school, please, feel free to take that idea and make it reality."

Reno, threw the covers down on the floor and rolled his eyes before turning to walk to the door "You'd miss your morning wake up call, and you know it." Grinning he winked at Cloud before pulling the door shut. Cloud climbed out of bed and grumbled to himself as he opened the window and looked outside. A cold sharp wind wiped its way across his face as the cars and people below buzzed around. The world was alive with the new day and all Cloud wanted to do was climb back into bed. School was not high on his list of ideal things to do. Crossing his room he discarded his pyjama bottoms and pulled some clothes on. Easy part, done, hard part, coming up; Cloud looked in the mirror at his hair wrinkling his nose up in distaste looking at how flat it had gone over night. The next 20 or so minute were spent with Cloud trying to get his hair to spike right, but to also look as if he hadn't spent that much time on it really. Another 10 minutes were spent with Cloud making his nose wriggle around as he made his mouth do various weird things. Grabbing his bag he chucked one strap over his shoulder before walking downstairs with a yawn.

An hour later Cloud and Reno walked through the school gates and joined the slow, loud bustle of people making their way into the building. Homeroom was the worst, half an hour of having to listen to people talk and talk about pointless things. Cloud opened his locker and starting pulling out the books he needed for the morning. Reno leaned against the locker beside Cloud's and looked around the hallway at the passing people.

"I swear, half the girls here forget what clothes are.."

"You don't mind when its Yuffle.." Cloud grinned to himself before looking up to catch Reno's eyes.

"I don't know what you're tal-Oh god, here comes Tifa, get rid of her its to early for her voice."

"Reno, she's not that bad."

Reno made a small noise of disgust in the back of his throat and made his face expressionless as the air beside Cloud was filled with a dark haired girl;

"Morning Cloud, good weekend?"

Cloud tried his best to ignore the constant, silent, get rid of her signals from Reno as he exchanged a small conversation with Tifa, biting his lip nervously as she eventually turned her attention away from him, and onto his best friend.

"Reno. How are you?"

"Well, I was pretty good, but now I have this really annoying pain in my neck, lingering around."  
Reno shot Tifa a sickly sweet smile as she huffed a sigh and folded her arms.

"Do you think you'll ever talk to me without the sarcasm practically dripping off your tongue?"

"Do you think you'll ever figure out what proper clothes are?"

Cloud groaned as this comment caused the pair to break out into a mini argument, shutting his locker he walked away from them. He was far to tired for this. He couldn't even remember why Reno disliked Tifa so much. Pushing his way through the small crowd in the halls he looked up and took a sharp intake of breath. Walking towards him was the familiar figure of Zack Fair. A year above Cloud and the constant source of Cloud's mind wondering from his lessons, one conversation it had taken for Cloud to start a full blown crush. Cloud was shy, very shy at times, and one of the times he was most shy was around new people, Zack had spoken to him outside the math department a few months ago while they'd both been waiting for a teacher. Cloud had stuttered and stumbled over his words and blushed like crazy. Zack mostly smiled, told him to relax and ruffled his hair before walking away. Ever since then, whenever they passed in the corridor Zack would smile at Cloud, a smile that would make him feel wobbly at his knees. Cloud would see Zack around the school often, and he always seemed to be smiling and bouncing along. He seemed as lively as a puppy. Hiding the bottom half of his face behind his books he grinned to himself as he passed Zack. Looking up at him, they made eye contact and Zack's face lit up into a smile as they passed. Cloud opened his mouth before closing it and smiling back, walking on. One day, he'd work up the courage to say hi. But Zack was always surrounded by people, and one thing Cloud could not do, was talk in front of so many people he did not know.

Zack grinned down at Cloud as they passed and watched as for the hundredth time Cloud would go to speak, then change his mind. Sure, Zack could speak first. But something made him think that Cloud wasn't comfortable with that. Zack had felt a strange attraction to the blonde since they'd met a few months ago, always smiling if he saw him. Zack flickered his eyes to the group of people he was walking with and wondered if, maybe Cloud didn't want to talk in front of so many people. Zack sighed to himself and rubbed his face as he walked. He wanted to talk to Cloud, he'd just have to find a way that didn't involve cornering him in the boys bathroom, or something creepy along those lines. Sitting down in his home room class he grinned at his friend, Prompto, and crossed his arms across his chest, preparing to nap during their teachers morning lecture. He never paid much attention during this class. Was there really any point? Flicking some of his hair from his eyes he heard a couple of the girls squeal quietly to each other and looked up to catch them staring at him. Rolling his eyes he lifted one hand to lazily wriggle his fingers in their direction in a half wave, causing the girls to bust out into a fit of giggles and hide behind their hair or books. Prompto rolled his eyes and turned to his friend; "You know, if you want to stop them ogling you every time you're near them, stop the little flirty waves."

"Ha, maybe I do want them to stop, or maybe I like the ego boosts on crappy Monday mornings, such as this one" Grinning, he looked at Prompto and wriggled his eyebrows suggestively; "Unless of course, you want to give me my ego boost.."

Poking Zack hard in the ribs Prompto rolled his eyes again and let them wonder across the room to two figures sitting in the corner, mostly focussing his gaze on the dark haired one before turning back to Zack

"When your name is Noctis Caelum, call me, and then I'll give you your ego boost"

Prompto clapped his hand down on Zack's shoulder as he laughed. This time, it was Zack's turn to roll his eyes and look over at Noctis.

"You going to tell him you want to take his dark little aura and mix it with your light one, if ya get what I mean?"

"Shut up Fair, I will punch you."

Prompto glared at him before lowering his head to rest his cheek on the desk, closing his eyes. Zack chuckled quietly to himself as he leaned back in his chair, and let his thoughts wonder back to Cloud. There had to be a way, a simple way, to talk to him without seeming like a creeper. Just walking up to him and saying hey seemed far to easy to Zack. Looking up at the board he sat up a little straighter when he noticed Cloud's name. He leaned across the table and grinned noticing that his name was written on the list of people who needed a little extra help in their studies. Grabbing the bull by the horns Zack jumped up and scooted across the room, scribbling his name down beside Cloud's he resisted the urge to punch the air in excitement. Such a beautiful, coincidence that this paper was here, a higher power was clearly on Zack's side. Walking back to his desk, he allowed himself a little hop step of excitement.


	2. Chapter 2

Hellooo ;3 Sorry for not updating sooner o.e Thank you for the reviews and favourties asdfg. I'm glad its liked :3

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Cloud walked into his bedroom and threw is bag down in the corner. Hopping across the room he pulled his window shut against the cold air that was starting to blow through into his room creating a chill. Sitting down on the ledge of the window, Cloud pulled his knees up and watched a small dog run around the park across the street and started grinning as he thought of Zack. A few times today they'd passed in the corridor and both had smiled at each other. Cloud was getting desperate for the courage he needed to talk to Zack. He wanted them to become friends; he knew that the chances of them being more than friends were not that great but he wanted to be in Zack's life somehow. That wasn't creepy was it? Cloud could hear his phone buzzing from his school bag and scooted across his bedroom floor to sit cross legged by it, hunting for his phone he pulled it out to see a message from Reno. Grumbling, he opened it.

_"So, Cloudy. The list of tutors has been emailed out. I think you're going to be very happy indeed."_

What? Why would he be happy? Picking up his laptop he pulled it open and logged it on to his school email. Tapping his fingers to his chin he opened the email and felt his mouth drop open when he read the name beside his. Zack was his tutor. No way. No freaking way was Zack his tutor. No way was he going to spend an hour and a half everyday with Zack. Alone. Flailing his arms, he was completely unable to come up with how to react to this normally and grabbed his phone to reply to Reno.

_"Zack Fair is my tutor. Holy shit Zack Fair is my tutor. How did I get this lucky?"_

Rubbing his face he hugged his knees up to his chest and rested his elbows on them and put his face in his hands as he stared at the email. Waiting to see if the letters magically changed, this couldn't be happening. An hour and a half with him everyday, alone, and now, Cloud was nervous. How was he supposed to handle this with how he felt? What if he said something that made it obvious and Zack was completely creeped out and dropped him. His phone buzzed signalling a reply and he picked it up;

_"Remember, this hour or so is for Zack to teach you. Not to put you on the desk and have his way with you." _

Cloud threw his phone away and squeaked blushing at the thought. He didn't need to think about this. He needed to keep his thoughts pure if he were going to survive this.

Zack sat back and leant against his pillows as he finished explaining to Prompto how he had set it up the tutor scheme.

"Do you think he'll think its strange? We met once then I sign up to do his tutoring?"  
"Nah, I bet not, I mean" Zack waited while Prompto paused on the other end of the line, rolling his eyes when he heard Prompto start eating, starting to talk again with his mouth full "He pro'bly won't think mu'ch o it.."

"Nice, real nice, talking with your mouth full, you disgust me sometimes Prompto. Hopefully he won't think I'm a creeper."

"Shut up, I'm hungry. He won't think you're a creeper, plus, its better than you two just passing in the corridor grinning at each other like a bunch of girls. Hey, do you think he likes you too?"

"Like me too? Are you kidding? I doubt he does, but you know, it wouldn't harm, attempting to flirt would it? Just to see how he responds.." Zack rubbed his face, thinking to himself about how lucky he'd be if he were to flirt with Cloud and have him flirt back. Sighing he waited for Prompto to finish eating and reply.

"Nah, it wouldn't hurt to flirt. What is the worst that could happen? Cloud getting freaked out and running away from you?" Prompto laughed quietly into the phone as Zack huffed a loud sigh.

"Oh, buzz off Prompto you're no help. I'm going to go bang my head off a wall in angst."

"Ew, drama queen" Zack laughed as Prompto rang off and put his phone down beside him, rolling over on his bed Zack buried his face into his pillow and grinned softly. Yeah, he was nervous Cloud would think he was a creeper, but still, it was perfect. Seeing him every day.

Prompto hung up on Zack and took another bite of his food, opening his texts he looked at his last reply from Noctis.

"_Why do you want to meet up directly on midnight? Is this another crack at my fondness of the dark?" _

_"No..maybe. yes, yes it is another crack at you bc you like the dark but still, it'd be cute right? Come on, meet me now. Go on, you know you want to.."_

_"Oh, tsk, fine, I'll meet you in the same place as last time. If you're late, this is the last time I agree to meet you at silly times."_

Prompto laughed and jumped up; looking at his Mum asleep on the sofa he slipped out the back door and it behind him. Shoving his hands into his pockets he trudged off towards the bench where he meets Noctis sometimes and grinned to himself. He knew Noctis secretly liked meeting him a silly times of the night, mostly because it was at night. Prompto ran a short distance before stopping and casually walking up to the bench where Noctis was sat, flopping down beside he grinned at him, making his eyes wide and puppy like. Noctis looked back at him and raised his eyebrows; "Don't pull that face at me Prompt, it won't do anything.." They looked at each other in silence before Noctis gave up and smiled back at him. Taking this as all the encouragement he needed Prompto sat up and cupped Noctis face in his palm, kissing him softly as Noctis pulled him in closer kissing back. They stayed entwined together for awhile before eventually breaking apart. Noctis let his head droop down to rest on Prompto's shoulder smiling softly with his eyes closed.

"See, I told you Noct, this is cute. It's all dark and nice. You just thought I was being mean."

"You were being mean, it's just a coincidence this is actually pretty nice."

Laughing, Prompto pressed his lips onto Noctis's head and nodded, smiling.

"True. But you know, my mean actions are all in joke. I adore you really"

"Hm. That's true, I adore you too"

Noctis slowly began to nuzzle his face into Prompto's neck as Prompto let his head fall back slightly; he let out as gasp as Noctis's teeth sank down into the sensitive skin of his neck.

"O-oh.."

He could feel Noctis began to smirk against his neck as he kept nipping softly at the skin. Prompto squirmed around and held onto Notcis's waist before pulling him into his lap and dragging his lips back up to his, kissing him deeply and slipping his hands up under Noctis shirt and holding his bare waist. He smiled into the kiss as he felt Noctis began to play with the hair at the back of his neck, cuddling him in closer he broke the kiss to grin up at him.

"I knew you'd forgive me for my teasing.."  
"How could I not, hm?" Noctis grinned softly and leaned in to kiss him again, still playing with his hair.

Prompto quietly slipped back into his house a few hours later and peeked round to see his mum still sleeping on the sofa. Chucking a blanket over her he quietly ran upstairs, threw himself under his covers and cuddled his pillow grinning. He loved those moments with Noctis, so simple and perfect. Fishing his phone out, he sent a quick goodnight text to him and rubbed his face. Rolling over he curled up and groaned, falling asleep.

Noctis slowly climbed up the tree beside his house and rolled through his window, dropping silently to his feet pulling it shut behind him. He paused and listened to the sounds of the house, sighing in relief at the snores of his parents. Silently padding across his room he climbed under his covers and pulled his phone out, grinning at the goodnight text he curled up hugging his phone to him. Prompto made him happy, made him come out his shell. He was so happy they were together. Rolling over he closed his eyes, silently falling asleep.

The next morning, Cloud walked into school and stopped beside his locker to exchange books. Yawning, he pushed some hair out his eyes and looked up, seeing Reno fill the space beside him.

"You were right; I missed my morning wake up call. Where were you?"

"Helping my mum, who's to lazy to do washing herself. Who does washing at 8am? I swear, women are all crazy."

Cloud laughed and shut his locker, nudging Reno along to their class allowing him to go on ranting. He'd be lying if he said he was disappointed he didn't see Zack on his way, but then, he's seeing him in 3 hours for tutoring.

"So, you nervous about your hot date with Mr Fair?"

Cloud hissed and elbowed Reno hard in the ribs as he stood laughing.

"Shh! Its not a hot date, its tutoring and can you keep your voice down what if he's around."

"Around where? Outside your homeroom class? Stalking you? Wow. Run. Run fast."

Reno laughed louder as Cloud pushed him roughly through the door and stomped in after him; sitting at the back of the room he folded his arms. Reno could be such a pain in the ass sometimes. He really wasn't helping his nerves at all. He shouldn't be this nervous about a simple tutoring session, even if it was Zack.


	3. Chapter 3

I am not to sure about this chapter to be honest, but I hope you guys like it! Thanks for the comments/views and stuff, very grateful :3 I'm thinking about changing the story to points of view within the next few chapters or what that be confusing? I'm not sure yet. Heh, anyway, thanks for reading! :)

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Cloud sat opposite Zack and watched as he read over some of his work. This was kind of embarrassing now. What if Zack thinks he's stupid? Leaning his chin in his hand he continued to watch until Zack looked up; forcing a small smile on his face he waited for him to speak; "Don't look so nervous Cloud"

"Hm? Oh, I'm not nervous, I just don't want you to think I'm stupid.." Cloud blushed and looked down at the desk, dropping his hand from his face as he did. Zack smiled and shook his head slowly "You don't? Well, don't worry, I won't think you're stupid Cloud" Smiling down at the chipped wood of the desk Cloud murmured back

"Really? You won't?"

"Honest, I won't" Zack leaned over and gently tilted Cloud's face up. Cloud allowed his face to be lifted, his cheeks were still red as he took a small breath and made eye contact with Zack. They both automatically smiled at the site of the others eyes and stayed locked in eye contact for awhile, in silence. Eventually, Zack gently pulled his hand back from Cloud's face; "We should probably do some work.."

Cloud blinked, feeling slightly dazed he nodded just staring up at Zack.

"Y-yeah, we should.." For the next half an hour Zack explained some things to Cloud and they both began to relax around each other. Zack had pulled his chair round and was sat right beside Cloud, causing Cloud's concentration to slip gradually. In the risk of being creepy Cloud couldn't help but notice how good Zack smelled, and how he bit his lip when he was struggling to remember something. He spent a lot of his time watching Zack from the corner of his eye, noticing the little things he did. Cloud nearly jumped out his skin when Zack nudged his knee against Cloud's; "I don't know about you, but I'm pretty much bored out my skull by this.."

With a quiet laugh, Cloud set his pen down and leaned back in his chair to look up at Zack

"Yeah me too, although, I do understand some of it a little better now, thanks Zack.."

Biting his lip, he mentally cussed himself out for the blush he could feel filling his face, Zack just smiled and nudged his arm gently against Cloud's; "Well now, that's okay Cloud, what am I here for?"

Cloud nodded and looked up at Zack still; "True.." They both looked down at the books in front of them, neither one wanting to continue the work but, not wanting the time together to end either. Cloud wanted nothing more then to ask Zack to go somewhere, to hang out together. But the fear of rejection held him back. Zack, more confident (although still fearing rejection) suddenly blurted out; "You want to go get some tea?" It was Zack's turn to blush as he stared down at the blonde beside him "O-or I mean, if you don't like tea we could just, go for a juice. Or something, that is if you want to I mean." Cloud grinned at his knees. Zack wanted to hang out with him. Zack had asked him. He nodded, looking up at Zack.

"Sure, tea sounds great."

The tea shop was located down a side street. It was only small, and the outside had lanterns dotted around and umbrellas over the tables. The evening was sunny and calm Cloud noted as he looked at the shop, looking over at Zack when he heard him speak; "Hey Cloud? Lets sit outside."

Cloud nodded in agreement and sat down at a small table, dropping his bag and books down beside him he watched as Zack joined him. Leaning his cheek into his palm he hid his grin behind it, as he looked at Zack. He was giddy with excitement and the butterflies were bubbling up fast inside him as he watched Zack lay the menu out in front of them. "So. Tea. Or juice? They do both here" Cloud leaned over to look at the menu reading it upside down.

"I'm thinking, juice. It's to warm for tea." He looked up at Zack and nodded. "Two juices coming up, spikes." Zack got up out his seat and gently tugged on one of Cloud's spikes with a playful grin before heading into the shop. Cloud blinked before starting to smile wide. The relaxed atmosphere was better than he'd hoped for. He couldn't believe his luck at the current situation, and how well things were playing out. A few moments later Zack returned carrying two glasses and took his seat opposite Cloud again. Cloud looked down into his glass and smiled, thanking Zack he poked his straw around the ice and mumbled nervously; "So..you must be quite good at classes, if you're my tutor.."

Zack laughed and ran his hand through his hair, looking over the table at him; "Oh I'm not that good. I wasn't really going to sign up until I saw your name." Cloud looked up at Zack and titled his head. A small blush was sitting on Zack's cheeks as he let that little bit of information slip, causing Cloud to swoon slightly. He was so cute.

"My name?"

"O-h well, yeah, I remembered our meeting and I've seen you in the corridor and I figured it'd be good to help. I mean, not that I think you need the help just that I thought it..would be..good..yeah.." Zack trailed off as Cloud sat there smiling at him.

"Well, I'm glad it was you that signed up to help me.."

Cloud and Zack sat there looking at each other with smiles on their faces as the conversation moved on from tutoring and they discussed each others interests, laughing every time they had something in common. Cloud was surprised to learn that Zack lived just round the corner from him.

"I've never seen you walking to school, I had no idea we lived so close."

"Oh I don't walk most of the time. My friend Prompto picks me up a lot and we drive." Cloud nodded and leaned back in his seat.

"That makes sense. I walk with Reno, he turns up at my house every morning..wakes me up in loud ways" Cloud frowned at that as Zack burst out laughing.

"Well maybe sometime I can save you from Reno's loud wake up calls, walk with you to school."

Cloud looked up and nodded, biting down on his lip. "That, would be great.."

Zack was grinning as he left the tea shop with Cloud. He allowed himself to walk slightly closer to Cloud noticing how slow the other was walking, he tilted his head and slowed his walk to match Cloud's pace. They walked in silence for a moment; "Are you okay? You're walking awful slow"

Cloud nodded with a sleepy smile, looking up at him. "Yeah, I'm just tired.."

Zack grinned and stepped in front of Cloud and gripped onto his upper arms, gently pulling him up onto his back; laughing as Cloud gasped in surprise.

"Zack! You don't have to carry me its fine"

"Its fine, just hold on tight I don't want to drop you"

Cloud weaved his arms around Zack's neck gently and mumbled; "This is the tallest I've ever been.."

Zack burst out laughing and looked up at Cloud, grinning.

"Probably the tallest you are ever going to get, shorty.."

Cloud pouted and rested his chin down on Zack's head, hitting him in the arm as they walked. "I'll get taller eventually. You're just freakishly tall."

Zack smiled and shook his head slowly, walking along holding Cloud. He smiled as Cloud relaxed and leant against him, looking around. The silence was comfortable as they walked, and Zack headed through the park taking the long way home, eager to keep their time together going even longer. Zack smiled as Cloud absentmindedly started gliding his fingers through his hair.

"So, will I see you tomorrow, Cloud?"

"Well, we have tutoring..so.." Zack nodded and followed Cloud's directions to his house, nudging the gate open with his foot he walked up the path and climbed the steps to the front porch. He dropped him gently down onto his feet and turned to face him with a grin, looking down at him.

"We could tutor at my house instead of the school if you wanted?"

Cloud looked up at Zack and bit his lip, nodding. "Sure..yeah, that sound's great.."

Zack grinned and hooked his bag over his shoulder; "Can I have your number? Text you where to meet and stuff" Cloud nodding, fishing his phone out his bag and handing it over; taking Zack's in return and putting his number in. They looked at each other for a moment before Zack ran his fingers through his hair; "So, I'll text you later or something, yeah?"

Cloud nodded and smiled up at him; "Yeah, text me..bye Zack.." Zack leaned down and kissed Cloud's cheek, causing his eyes to widen slightly and a blush to start forming. Zack smiled, murmuring "Bye Cloud.." against the blondes pink cheek. Zack turned and walked down the steps and out the gate, leaving Cloud stood at his door with his fingers on his cheek, smiling wide.


End file.
